Your Brain On Bliss

Seemingly, 2011 would have good year for the federal government to be engaged in increasing employment and securing the financial system from further meltdown. Unfortunately, the government did neither of these. Astoundingly, federal bureaucrats instead re-energized the idiotic and failed war on drugs, especially medical marijuana.

DEA jackboots raid a house.

The year began dismally with a unanimous senate confirmation of Bush/Obama appointee Michele Leonhart to head the DEA.  Any hope for cannabis rescheduling, or even research, are dashed by her choke hold on medical marijuana as administrator of this bloated agency. During confirmation hearing her anti-medical cannabis ravings were praised by powerful senators, such as Senate Judiciary Leader Jeff (”I love the DEA”) Sessions, R-Alabama. The bureaucrat Leonhart is now empowered to essentially single-handedly determine US doctrine on medical marijuana, predictably hard-line. Schedule I classification of marijuana has been very, very good to the agency and to the bloated pensions of thousands of needless, useless federal employees. This erroneous Schedule I classification for cannabis is the cause of life-crushing harshness of twenty million arrests during this senseless and on-going war on marijuana.

One possible bright ray of hope came with legislation offered by the retiring Barney Frank and presidential hopeful Ron Paul. H.R. 2306 would have repealed federal penalties for production, distribution, and possession of cannabis for medical use. This one piece of freedom-promoting legislation was quick quashed by a single powerful representative, Lamar Smith R-Texas. He simply refused to give the legislation a hearing and the desperately needed legislation died on the spot, tyranny in action.

Encouraged by this drug war zealotry, freedom-harming initiatives sprouted from seemingly every branch of the federal government.

• The ATF, perhaps trying divert attention from their appalling gun running to Mexican cartels fiasco, sought to deny second amendment gun rights to patients afforded relief by state legal medical marijuana.
• The IRS gutted the financial viability of cannabis dispensaries by denying ability to expense costs, as every other business is allowed.
• Congress, supposed infused by “small government” representatives voted in 2010, instead proposed new, big-government-at-its-worst intrusive legislation. Notable was the legislation, proposed again by the lamentable Lamar Smith R-TX that would criminalize American’s activities overseas, if they violated the Controlled Substances Act.
  
• Federal prosecutors across the country banded together to attack voter-approved state medical cannabis protections in the fifteen states with such legislation. By playing the federal Schedule I trump card, federal prosecutors have all they need to persecute, jail, fine, and seize assets from those working for medical cannabis freedom and building this new health care industry.

As George W. Bush would say, “they attack us because they hate our freedoms.” But the attackers in 2011 are our own taxpayer-supported federal bureaucrats. They attack fellow citizens benefiting medically from cannabis and the health care industry that was quickly growing, to protect and expand the rosy drug-warrior careers and pensions this failed war on Americans has provided these lordly bureaucrats.

Rescheduling cannabis and drastically downsizing the counterproductive war on drugs were easy steps that Barack Obama could have taken.  He could have chosen a leader, such as Norm Stamper, rather than a drug war crazed self-server to head the DEA. Instead, as in so many ways, he has chosen to play out George W. Bush’ third term. Far more Americans support ending cannabis prohibition than support Obama’s reelection.

Sigh, 2012 does not look much better. Unless maybe Ron Paul were elected president.

When given the choice, Americans suffering from a wide variety of medical afflictions substitute safer cannabis instead of increasingly lethal prescription drugs.

Supposedly, freedom of choice is a key American value, especially with regards to personal decisions such as one’s own health care. Yet the federal government and most states deny their citizens the right to include the medical herb cannabis as part of their personal health care options. When “given” this choice in states with voter-mandated medical exemptions patients substitute medical marijuana for prescription drugs.

Increasingly, prescription drugs are costly, debilitating and dangerous. Far more Americans now die from effects of prescription drugs than from the DEA scheduled drugs, such as heroin, meth and cocaine. Prescription opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers are the biggest killers, usually ending lives by suppressing breathing. When considering drug policy and medical options, it must be noted that zero persons, none, die from medical cannabis. As stated by DEA law judge Francis Young, “Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.”

Evidence pointing to this harm reducing substitution has again been validated by survey of patients using medical cannabis. Two-thirds of the responses showed the patients choosing to substitute cannabis for powerful, disorienting and sometimes addictive and lethal prescription drugs. In particular, patients in pain are able to use less narcotic, opioid pain reliever when medical cannabis was used in adjunct.

Cannabis is one of the least toxic of all drugs. Meanwhile, it offers clear medical benefits to those suffering from a variety of diseases and maladies, including glaucoma, pain and MS. One of its most medically beneficial properties may be in allowing users to use less of dangerous medications and pain relievers.

End moronic Schedule I persecution of medical cannabis!

Click to see the Republican Debate on Medical Cannabis you will see nowhere else.

Rarely does this site quote from Forbes, as in Steve Forbes, but Doug Bandow has performed a great service with his current piece at Forbes.com, It’s Time To Declare Peace In The War Against Drugs.

The former special assistant to Ronald Reagan elegantly catalogs the malignacies of current drug policy. Concerning cannabis policy he writes,

• “The Drug War also interferes with treatment of the sick and dying. Cannabis and other drugs can aid people suffering from a variety of maladies. Additional research would help determine how, in what form, and for what marijuana could be best used. Yet government effectively punishes vulnerable people in great pain, even agony.”

Author Bandow notes some of the ruinous wrongs ending the war on drugs would correct:

• “Banning drugs raises their price, creates enormous profits for criminal entrepreneurs, thrusts even casual users into an illegal marketplace, encourages heavy users to commit property crimes to acquire higher-priced drugs, leaves violence the only means for dealers to resolve disputes, forces government to spend lavishly on enforcement, corrupts public officials and institutions, and undermines a free society. All of these effects are evident today and are reminiscent of Prohibition (of alcohol) in the early 20th Century.”

Bandow must have not been responsible for Ronald Reagan’s drug policies. This ’small-government’ president’s worst hypocrisy and mistake was to “run up the battle flag on the war on drugs.” See Why 1984 WAS like 1984.

During this “Just Say No” era, bloated bureaucracies such as the DEA had money thrown at them, the Bill of Rights was disemboweled with the drug war exception, mandatory minimums were enacted. A quintupling of the US prison population began, now burdening the USA with the world’s highest number (and percentage) of caged citizens. Many of them are totally non-violent and no risk to society, ordinary Americans entrapped by draconian laws.

In late 2011, incredibly, the USA is again on the path of ramping up the drug war yet again, especially against cannabis, a medically beneficent natural substance that should never have been illegal, much less Schedule I. As long as it is Schedule I, self-serving Feds have everything they need to promote and expand their jobs and pensions with a renewed war on marijuana. Evidence of this new heavy hand of prohibition is everywhere.

• Obama’s pathetic renomination of Bush-appointee and arch-medical cannabis nemesis Michele Leonhart to head DEA. The president’s ill thought appointment, and her gag-inducing Senate confirmation, allows this national police force to reinvigorate its war against Americans benefiting from medical marijuana.

• The California dispensary system, conforming with state law, is about to be broken. One of the few positive aspects of the California economy just now, the dispensary system efficiently provides Californians their medicine, while generating employment, innovation and local and state tax revenue. Now the IRS and threats of ruinous property forfeitures are being used to close down these employers and tax payers.

• Another crushing blow to any drug peace, was the Senate’s idiotic rejection of Jim Webb’s National Criminal Justice Commission Act (S. 306).  Crucial issues, such as grotesquely counterproductive laws, prosecutions, mandatory minimums and incarcerations could have been questioned in the light of day. Not going to happen.

It is preposterous that the USA, at this challenging point in its history can reinvigorate one of its most clearly failed policies, the federal war on marijuana. The country desperately needs to not be wasting its resources and attacking the rights, medical freedoms and lives of its citizens, but it is doing just that.

Incredibly, as America fights its way through an economic and political morass, one of the country’s most counterproductive and idiotic failures, the War on Drugs, is ramping up.

New congressional legislation would extend globally its icy grip by inflicting felonies on Americans any place on earth, if their behavior involves the spiritual, medical or recreational use of any drug illegal in the the USA. Or even if that behavior merely involved talking about the possibility of using drugs such as cannabis or psychoactive mushrooms. As reported by Radley Balko in The Huffington Post, “allows prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against anyone who discusses, plans or advises someone else to engage in any activity that violates the Controlled Substance Act, the massive federal law that prohibits drugs like marijuana and strictly regulates prescription medication.”

The thought police in this case is Texas Representative Lamar Smith. Tragically, this big government conservative is head of the Judiciary Committee, perfectly placed for power to guide American drug policy further down into the dungeon. Had similar legislators been in place during the alcohol prohibition, it would have been a felony for Americans to drink wine in France. Or to have discussed drinking wine in France. The legislation will doubtless pass the “small government” House of Representative and quite possibly the Senate. Drug-war criminal Lamar Smith recently single-handedly crushed legislation by Ron Paul and Barney Frank that would have excepted medical cannabis from federal prosecution.

The founding fathers must be writhing in their graves, as the all powerful federal government lays total claim to the lives, minds and behaviors of Americans anywhere on the planet.

Soldiers on patrol

Even more evidence now points to cannabis as an effective treatment for PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Confirming research showing PTSD may be particularly responsive to cannabinoids, this new Israeli rat study refines the timeline of effective cannabinoid treatment for the debilitating condition. Long before this important research, though, the effectiveness of cannabis and cannabinoids in treating PTSD was becoming well known. Again, much of the research is Israeli. American researchers are denied permission by the DEA to study medical cannabis.

Although events and conditions that can cause PTSD are diverse, including auto accident. Post-traumatic stress disorder is common following significant orthopedic trauma. But war experiences are key triggers for PTSD and now nearly two million Americans have served America’s in its two longest wars, Iraq and Afghanistan. A search of Science Daily finds:

• Post Traumatic Stress Has Tripled Among Combat-Exposed Military Personnel

• Mental Illnesses Appear Common Among Veterans Returning From Iraq And Afghanistan

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Primary Suicide Risk Factor For Veterans

• PTSD Causes Early Death From Heart Disease, Study Suggests

How ironic, and troubling, that those who have served their country, and now suffer from combat exposure-caused PTSD do not have the freedom to use this effective medication back home, at least in most US states. Even states with medical marijuana laws do not all include PTSD as a qualifying condition. Instead, those who theoretically fought for freedom, ours and their own, now have their own freedom of medical choice denied. Some will suffer the antithesis of freedom, incarceration, for choosing a natural and safe (zero deaths) medication for their PTSD symptoms. Federally, all are criminals, felons. Sadly, with its war on cannabis, America violates it basic tenets of personal choice and the core right of American citizens to be left alone by their government.

Instead of enjoying to freedom of medical choice, Iraq and Afghanistan PTSD-wounded are commonly prescribed powerful pharmaceutical anti-depressant and even anti-psychotic drugs. One of the many possible negative results of anti-depressant use is thickening of the arteries. In this latest study showing the effectiveness of cannabinoids in treating PTSD, CB1 receptor antagonists were shown to block this protective effect. This demonstrates the key role of CB1 receptors, also activated by cannabis, in treating PTSD.

Related to PTSD is TBI, or traumatic brain injury. Often coming from IED blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan, TBI afflicts thousands of veterans. Israeli research shows that TBI also is responsive to cannabinoid treatment. But that is topic of another post.

People who use cannabis are less likely to be obese than those that do not. This intriguing finding was just revealed in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Two large epidemiological studies found far lower rates of obesity and BMI in cannabis consumers versus abstainers.

Such finding are particularly important when obesity threatens human well-being across the planet. Especially in the USA, but also now world wide, this plague of pounds drives degenerative diseases and health care costs. Obesity is a chronic low grade inflammation. Fat cells displace organs and produce cellular toxins. Obesity kills at least one out of eight Americans.

Should cannabis use worsen this obesity problem, it might be an important contraindication for medical cannabis use. Cannabis consumption is, after all, commonly associated with “the munchies.” Medically it is useful in helping those with wasting syndrome gain weight. The cardiometabolic aspects of enhancing the endocannabinoid response be activating CB1 and CB2 receptors do not seem very beneficial. If anything, they seem negative from several cardiometabolic parameters, such as adiponectin levels.

Remember, it was the cannabinoid receptor antagonist, Rimonabant, that was just a few years ago thought to have a major future as an anti-obesity drug.  This “anti-marijuana” was supposed to give you the “anti-munchies.” But human trials showed it also caused an “anti-high”, exhibited by anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. It was never approved by the FDA.

The new study, however, shows higher consumption of cannabis with reduced rates of obesity. The authors conclude, “that the prevalence of obesity is lower in cannabis users than in nonusers.” The study was controlled for cigarette smoking. The authors did not speculate by what mechanism cannabis consumers were more free from obesity than people not consuming cannabis.

Generally, the best method to freedom from obesity it to be physically active, walk at least 10,000 steps per day, and maintain a nutritious, calorie-lean diet.

Say YES to NO with exercise!

Regular robust exercise protects (and extends) your health in dozens of ways.  Recent research at Emory University focused on how exercise protects your heart by stimulating your heart into generating and storing the gas, nitric oxide. To be clear, this gas is not nitrous oxide (N2O), the anesthetic “laughing gas.”

The chemical formula for the important cellular signaling gas nitric oxide is NO. One of the main signalling functions of NO is the relaxation of smooth muscles surrounding blood vessels. The resulting vasodilation allows blood to flow easier and in greater volume. Blood pressure is reduced. Dr. Oz includes a graphic of NO molecules widening blood vessels in YOU: Staying Young. He advocates nose breathing to promote NO. NO plays an important role in erections through this blood flow mechanism and is a mechanism employed by Viagra.

In addition to vasodilation, NO protects the heart and arteries, specifically the endothelial lining of blood vessels, in other ways. NO, which is produced primarily in this endothelium, also helps the heart and arteries by preventing fatty deposits. Plaque build up is reduced. Oxidation in artery walls is lessened. Stickiness of platelets and monocytes is limited. All these factor help keep arteries clear and healthy.

In the heart, the Emory research showed that this nitric oxide creation and storage in the heart of NO metabolites, nitrite and nitrosothiols proved cardio-protective. They also point to the role of endothelial nitric oxide synthase a (eNOS) and β₃-adrenergic receptors (β₃-ARs). They conclude, “Our findings clearly demonstrate that exercise protects the heart against myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury by stimulation of β₃-ARs and increased cardiac storage of nitric oxide metabolites (ie, nitrite and nitrosothiols).”

This cardio-protective effect lasted about a week after ceasing exercise, presumably through the release of stored NO from its metabolites remaining in the heart. So say “yes” to NO by not letting a week go by without a good session of cardiovascular exercise. Ideally, it is a very good and healthy practice to exercise hard and long enough to produce quickened breathing and sweating on a daily basis.

Much of what is known about physiology is being redefined by the recent discovery and research into the endocannabinoid regulatory system. Few physiological processes seem untouched by this system and NO production is no different.

Cannabinoid receptors, small protein structures in the cell walls of neurons (and other cells) have been shown positive effects in protecting the brain from degeneration. Now, new research out of Bonn, Germany confirms how important CB1 receptors and the activation of these receptors, are to the well-being of our aging brains. Science Daily’s write up of the research was entitled, Bodyguard for the Brain: Researchers Identify Mechanism That Seems to Protect Brain from Aging. The bodyguard mentioned is none other than the CB1 receptor, which is activated by endocannabinoids such as anandamide and also by the plant cannabinoid, THC.  Activation of the CB1 receptors helped protect the brain from inflammation, memory loss, and learning deficiency. It prevented nerve cell loss in the critical hippocampus structure. These were mouse studies but with strong correlation to human learning, aging, memory and dementia.

Seemingly, this research would have important implications for medical cannabis. One of the main effects of  cannabis and its cannabinoids such as THC is the activation of these CB receptors in the brain. This research would imply that such activation provides a neuroprotective, anti-aging effect.

Another implication would include caution towards the use of CB1 receptor antagonists and/or CB1 receptor inverse agonist. Rimonabant, is just such a compound, acting as a blocker and perhaps inverse activator of CB1 receptors. Five years ago there was great hope that this “anti-marijuana” would make an effective weight loss drug, by causing the “anti-munchies.” But just as cannabis provides a mild uplifting “high,” this drug predictably caused the opposite effect, that is depression. It failed approval by the FDA and was later removed in some European markets for its depressive (and sometimes nauseating) effects. The new German research should spur caution about the possible brain degenerative effects of blocking CB receptors.

Regarding the importance of the identification of the CB1 receptor in brain neuroprotection, one of the lead German researchers noted: “The root cause of aging is one of the secrets of life. This study has begun to open the door to solving this enigma.”

Glaucoma is a major blinding disease, the second leading cause of loss of sight in the USA. The chief mechanism is excessive pressure inside the eyeball. Treatments focus on reducing this pressure, often through trying to reduce production of the intraocular liquid, aqueous humor, or to increase its drainage

Imagine inflating a basketball to twice its recommended pressure. Not only would it bounce and handle poorly, it would also be in some danger of exploding. In the eye, excess pressure can deform the back of the eyeball where the optic nerve leads deep into the brain. The pressure can cause “cupping,” and with it, irreversible optic nerve damage. The crushing effect causes excitotoxicity in the damaged retinal ganglion cells, and further injury results from this oxidation stress.

The function of cannabinoids in lowering this damaging interocular pressure is well known; the treatment of glaucoma with cannabis is one of the most readily identified medical uses of marijuana.

Now it is clear that the benefits go far beyond this crucial lowering of intraocular pressure. Activation of the endocannabinoid receptor system also now appears to provide robust neuroprotective effects. Not only does cannabis lower eye pressures, it also serves to help protect the visual nerve cells from damage.

Our eyes are well endowed with endocannabinoid receptors of both types, CB1 and CB2. CB1 receptors have been shown to flourish in  the human anterior eye, where the excess pressure is generated, and the retina, where the damage of glaucoma takes place.

Research, reported in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, found CB1 receptors in all the frontal eye anatomy thought important in controlling IOP (intraocular pressure). These include Schlemm’s canal and “ciliary epithelium, trabecular meshwork, and in the blood vessels of the ciliary body.”  The authors surmised that evidence of CB1 receptors in the “ciliary pigment epithelium suggests that cannabinoids may have an effect on aqueous humor production.”  CB1 presence in the trabecular meshwork and Schlemm’s canal “suggests that cannabinoids may influence conventional outflow.” Evidence of effects on uveoscleral outflow are inferred by CB1in the ciliary muscle.

CB1 receptors are also present on the other (back) end of the eye, the all important retina and its attachment to the optic nerve with retinal ganglion cells. Here, the neuroprotective effects of activation of cannabinoid receptors may prevent and reduce damage caused by high IOP.  Research out of Finland concluded that “at least some cannabinoids may ameliorate optic neuronal damage through suppression of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor hyperexcitability, stimulation of neural microcirculation, and the suppression of both apoptosis and damaging free radical reactions, among other mechanisms.”

Research our of University of Aberdeen, UK remind that not all neuroprotective properties of cannabinoids come from their activation of the endocannabinoid system; cannabinoids are powerful antioxidants in their own right. Writing in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, the researchers note that “Classic cannabinoids such as Δ⁹-THC, HU-211, and CBD have antioxidant properties that are not mediated by the CB₁ receptor. As a result, they can prevent neuronal death by scavenging toxic reactive oxygen species produced by overstimulation of receptors for the excitatory neurotransmitter, glutamic acid.” The British researchers also note that regarding the CB2 receptor, “The anti-inflammatory properties of CB2 receptor agonists might also prove to be of therapeutic relevance in different forms of inflammatory eye disease.”

Tragically, little of this research has been done in the USA. Even though glaucoma blinds hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, the anti-cannabis bias of the controlling agencies (DEA, NIDA ) has not allowed research with this natural plant substance that can prevent these blindings. They cling to the fiction (and blatant lie) that marijuana has no medical value and disallow all research even while their countrymen and women needlessly lose precious, precious sight.

So strong is this prejudice that even so-called advocacy groups such as the Glaucoma Research Foundation appear uninterested in a natural substance that helps prevent glaucoma. “Information” on medical marijuana at this site appears to have been written by the propaganda officers of the DEA.

Meanwhile, across the globe, research moves forward identifying evermore ways humans can gain health benefits from the cannabis plant. At the forefront are the IOP lowering, optic nerve-protecting effects of THC and other cannabinoids.